Repurposing: My Hardworking Office/Class/Kids Craft Room, an Unexpected Tour

I was looking through some photos of Kids Club meetings and thought you might like to see a room I don't often photograph in. Let me tell you, other than my kitchen this room is a very hard working room! It is an addition to the house and the former owner who built it did not connect to the A/C duct work in there. There is an added A/C window unit but it doesn't really help and oh my gosh is it expensive to run!

We have 3 doors leading from this room into the main house so by leaving all those doors open we mostly get the cooling we need in the summer. Winter is not a problem at all because this room is on the south side of the house. So let me show you my hard working space. 

I didn't clean up or stage anything as I had not planned to post these pics when they were taken. My desk is made from a re-purposed farm house style table with white turned legs. The table/desk sits in an L shape along with a sofa table to the right I also re-purposed to office furniture. With the table positioned this way, when I am sitting in that stripped chair, I can see the side door we all use and a door I turned - re-purposed - into a chalk board. 

Since this table is wider than a desk - it's 40 inches wide and 5 feet long - there is room opposite of me along with another chair for Papa to sit and work as needed. We cut a 3 inch hole in the top of the table behind were my monitor sits to run the cords through. That keeps them from being in the way on top. 

Now moving around behind my chair and to the right, you will see my fabric and vinyl cover table where the big kids are sitting. This is where all the kids crafting happens. It is also where I spend time with the little kids teaching them a little preschool. Don't think I have ever mentioned that and I will talk more about that another time. 

I pull out one of my folding kids table for the little ones so they are not left out when the big kids are busy. There is that ugly unused window A/C. I plan to hang a big chalk board there one day. My husband is going to make it so it fits over the unit then we will not have to do repairs to take it out. Of course it will also still be there should we want to use it again. 

Book shelves holding mine and Papas books. Also more kids supplies.  Behind those blinds is a glass door that leads to our patio and soon.....a play area for the kids! I can't wait for it to be finished! My small chest freezer, my huge artist easel is behind that.

Still moving around to the right. Door to the bathroom there, some aprons...I really need to make more soon!

And here we are looking back at my desk, sort of. It's the top right there. We took the cabinets from the kitchen area when we put in a built in pantry. There are 4 upper cabinets and they sure do store a lot of stuff with out taking up much room. They hold office supplies, preschool supplies and of course more craft supplies. 

Top middle of pic is another door to the playroom (once a guest room); a yellow country style tea cart my husband made years ago. It is now re-purposed and holds 2 galvanized bins on top; one for library books and one is a lost and found. The bottom of the tea cart is a bin for shoes. All the kids take off their shoes when they come in and that's where they go. That next door goes into the living room, that far door goes into what I called loving "my studio". I have spent many hours in there happily sewing, painting, and crafting while listening to an audio book. 

However, as you can see, I have many reasons now to not have time for such pleasures. It has kind of become a catch all room and it is a night mare in there! I clear out space when I need to make a gift or use the sewing machine. I have an ironing board in there I leave up all the time and that is nice to have. That room doesn't have duct work for the A/C either and it gets rather hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Really it is best used as a storage area but I did love spending time in there once! It will happen again when these kids grow up.

Alright, I decided I needed to take a better pic of the desk. I cleaned it up this time :) Here you can see that my desk is really a table re-purposed. And you can see my old door turned into a chalk board. (tutorial for that coming soon) Can you read what it says at the top? "Grandma's house, where cousins go to become best friends" We are almost at the end of our tour but here is one more pic.

This is what happens when Papa gets home! I love it and will never tire of watching this scene played out over and over, they love him so much :)  Hmm, I counted only 7 kids there, one isn't in the picture. 

We have made a complete circle now around this hard working room. Below the chalkboard it is an cute little bench Papa made for the kids to sit on when they take off their shoes. To the right of Papa (your right not his :) is a little mirror shelf where Papa keeps his car keys. Below that a hanging wire basket to hold a few often used items. Below the basket, a filing cabinet; on top another upright basket where I place the preschool work that is going home with a section for each child. 

Excess items, clothing etc that is going home sits on the corner of my desk ready and in sight of mom and dad when they arrive. In this picture, the kids clothes had gotten wet playing in the water. I dried them out side then lay them across that extra chair there and on the desk corner waiting to go home. 

Well there you have it, my spur of the moment home tour of my hard working office/class room/kids craft room space. It is a much loved area of our home. It is crowded and usually messy but we love it.

I link at these parties. 

 Copyright © 2013 by Hill House Homestead ALL RIGHTS RESERVED